17 September 2014

Music has always been a huge passion and inspiration to me. Ever since I started playing, everything just came more naturally to me than others; however, I do not have the gift of playing my horn persay, but more so with understanding the correlations and interrelations with the individual sections and with the more theoretical aspects of music. Most students with my passion for music aspire to become world renowned players and devote their time solely to practicing their instrument, but I have something totally different in mind. Music Education represents my ideal occupation for the rest of my life. When I first became intrigued in the field of music education, I had to sit down and think about what exactly I could do to prepare myself for this career. I came up with three ways that I could increase my musical ability and understanding. To help me achieve my goal to become a music educator, I must expand my playing at the high school level, I must grab every class that offers the slightest insight into the field of music, and I must push music into my life outside of school.

High school band has had a tremendous effect on my future outlook. Band has given me many approaches to the field of music including high school directing, private lesson teaching, professional playing and sound engineering. The example I maintain the most has to be high school directing. The ability to see how the students affect the director’s lives in negative and positive ways captivates me. I realized quickly that this occupation heavily contrasted many others because of this. Another concept I have learned in my high school experience is discipline. In any musical ensemble, individual talent has less bearing than discipline and work ethic. If a person does not put the work in, than the ensemble’s function immediately collapses. I have become a more disciplined person in my experience so far, and I can’t begin to imagine the other values I will learn in music education.

In order for me to have the best possible chance at understanding college music courses, I must take any class that has anything to offer me inmusic. Music classes I have taken in the past four years include Music Production and Advanced Placement Music Theory. I feel as though both of these classes have given me a greater understanding of the entire field of music. Music Production showed me an entirely different aspect of music compared to performance, and my theory course is showing me different ways to explain the same musical concept. By taking these classes, I have far better prepared myself to both understand and teach music in the future.

Since February of this year, I have actively participated in the Paluxy River Community Band. The experience I have gained from the ensemble has been quite great. I have observed young musicians and old musicians alike playing together. This group of musicians gather for one purpose only, to have fun. In this ensemble, I see exactly how much music affects and has affected other people’s lives. The impact that the community band has on me consists of a less routinized and more entertaining approach than other factors. The impact of music on my everyday life will mold me into a well experienced and resourceful music educator.